HomeLondon Campaign The London Guantánamo Campaign Welcomes Binyam Mohamed Back to the UK
The London Guantánamo Campaign Welcomes Binyam Mohamed Back to the UK
The London Guantánamo Campaign welcomes the return of Binyam Mohamed to the UK. His return is long overdue, and we applaud the Foreign Office for taking steps to bring it about. We hope that he will now be given every assistance to enable his recovery from his ordeal, and to reclaim his life.
We call on the Government to ensure that his return is free from the political and sensationalist propaganda to which former detainees have and continue to be subjected. These actions seek to persuade the British public that they are both a threat to, and a burden on, the state. No cloud of suspicion must be allowed to hang over a man who has never been found guilty of any crime.
Moreover, the truth must now be laid bare about the events surrounding his illegal detention. The Foreign Secretary has a duty reveal the disputed information concerning the role played by British and American agents in his rendition and torture. All those who have acted illegally in this respect, and all who have sought to cover up unpalatable truths, must be brought to justice.
While the United Kingdom has taken the step of facilitating the return of nearly all of the British residents and nationals to this country, further steps must be taken to ensure the safe and immediate return of both Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national who has a British family in London, and Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian resident who was living in Bournemouth at the time of his capture, and who also has strong ties to the UK.
Christine MacLeod, from the London Guantánamo Campaign, says:
"Binyam Mohamed's story exemplifies the very worst of the atrocities committed by the US administration in response to the attacks of 9/11. President Obama must now make every effort to bring an end to these illegal, inhumane practices, by applying the rule of law to all, regardless of nationality, religion or perceived wrongdoing."
1. The London Guantánamo Campaign campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and for an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition.
2. Binyam Mohamed is a 30 year old Ethiopian national who came to the UK as an asylum seeker in 1994, at the age of 16, after his father, a political activist, was arrested by the government. He studied, worked and lived in North Kensington for seven years. In 2001, he went travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to experience life in "an Islamic country". He was arrested at Karachi airport in April 2002 and was detained illegally by the Pakistani authorities for several months, before being handed over to the CIA who had him flown to Morocco where he was detained and tortured for 18 months. Under torture he confessed to his role in a plot against the US, a plot which was subsequently discredited in the American courts.
Mr Mohamed was then taken to Afghanistan, where he was held and tortured in the notorious "Dark Prison" in Kabul before being flown to Guantánamo Bay in September 2004. It is the period of his "disappearance" and "rendition" through Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan in 2002-2004 which is the subject of the High Court case in which the Home Secretary has refused to reveal crucial documents.
3. The use of extraordinary rendition was authorised by former President Clinton in 1995 to allow the CIA to kidnap foreign suspects abroad. Since 9/11, the use of this practice has expanded extensively and thousands of people have been "rendered" (kidnapped, transferred and tortured) under the "war on terror". Many of the detainees held at Guantánamo Bay were kidnapped in Pakistan, transferred to Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay where they are/were tortured.
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